January 8, 2013

The Lincoln Legend

John Blake of CNN reviews (and critiques) Steven Spielberg's new film "Lincoln," and suggests that the Spielberg Lincoln is not as accurate or as complex as the PBS Lincoln available in a three-part documentary which begins airing tonight. In part, says Mr. Blake, the documentary points out that Harriet Beecher Stowe, not President Lincoln, had a great part in persuading people that slavery was immoral, via her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Further, what fueled the enduring attraction of slavery in the South was not just twisted moral thinking on the part of its defenders, but its economic foundation. He discusses more reasons, more issues, here.